Project 1 Artist Statement

Inspired by lithophanes and the molts of certain crabs I aimed to create a translucent ceramic object that suggested the quiet presence of life. A molted crab shell is a piece of ephemera and a leaving. It is biologic trash, empty architecture. The ceramic object is functionally modeled after lithophanes. It’s a very thin, translucent porcelain that diffuses light and shows the layers and thickness of the shell in high relief when illuminated. The object pulses with a gentle pink light. The LEDs fade in and out almost slower than the viewer can notice. A proximity sensor registers at 40 cm when the viewer begins to approach and signals the LEDs to pulse faster and slowly turn more red. At 15cm a “panic mode” initiates, triggering the LEDs to blink rapidly and turn completely red.

If light is often read as a sign of life, the work asks what it means for this seemingly cast off shell to breathe and pulse. It occupies an ambiguous space between living organism, and artifact or fossil. The absence present in the form is complicated by the light and reactivity, suggesting the organism still has vitality. Through this viewer/object interaction the piece reflects on the cyclical nature of renewal and decay: molting, digestion, and reincorporation, where discarded material becomes the site of new life. The glowing shell exists both as the residue of something ended and a symbol of a new beginning.